Imaging system, methodology, and applications employing reciprocal space optical design

Abstract

An imaging system, methodology, and various applications are provided to facilitate optical imaging performance. The system includes a sensor having one or more receptors and an image transfer medium to scale the sensor and receptors in accordance with resolvable characteristics of the medium. A computer, memory, and/or display associated with the sensor provides storage and/or display of information relating to output from the receptors to produce and/or process an image, wherein a plurality of illumination sources can also be utilized in conjunction with the image transfer medium. The image transfer medium can be configured as a k-space filter that correlates a pitch associated with the receptors to a diffraction-limited spot associated with the image transfer medium, wherein the pitch can be unit-mapped to about the size of the diffraction-limited spot.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A system for generating a digital image, comprising:
 an optical system having at least one objective lens for microscopic imaging of a sample; 
 a sensor having a plurality of pixels to generate an image for the optical system; and 
 a matching lens associated with the sensor to scale the pixels to about a size of a diffraction-limited parameter associated with the objective lens, the matching lens is designed to accommodate a range of powers associated with a set of objective lenses. 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1 , the sensor is associated with a digital camera. 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 1 , the optical system further comprising an infinity path to enable receiving the image at the sensor. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 3 , further comprising a beam splitter to direct the image to the sensor. 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 4 , the beam splitter, the matching lens, and the sensor are adapted to the infinity path to enable retrofitting of a digital imager into an existing system. 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 3 , the infinity path enables at least one optical module to be associated with the path. 
     
     
       7. The system of  claim 6 , the optical module includes at least one of an auto focus module, an epi illumination module, a fluorescence module, a phase encoding module, and a filter module. 
     
     
       8. The system of  claim 1 , the optical system is at least one of an industrial optical system, a commercial optical system, and a medical optical system. 
     
     
       9. The system of  claim 1 , the diffraction-limited parameter is associated with at least one of a geometrical criterion defined by an energy wavelength and a Numerical Aperture, a Rayleigh criterion, an Airy disk criterion, and a Sparrow's criterion. 
     
     
       10. The system of  claim 1 , the matching lens having a focal length designed to approximate an object-plane diffraction-limited spot size with a pixel dimension. 
     
     
       11. The system of  claim 1 , the the set of objective lenses comprising magnifications of 10×, 20×, and 40×. 
     
     
       12. The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a set of matching lenses that are correlated to provide diffraction-limited mapping of pixels with a set of objective lenses. 
     
     
       13. The system of  claim 12 , the matching lenses are synchronized with the set of objective lenses such that if a different objective lens is selected having a different resolution, a matching lens is automatically selected to provide diffraction-limited pixel matching. 
     
     
       14. The system of  claim 1 , the pixels have pitch size of about 2 microns to about 10 microns. 
     
     
       15. The system of  claim 14 , the pixels are associated with a resolution lens having a numerical aperture from about 0.1 to about 1.3. 
     
     
       16. The system of  claim 14 , the pixels are associated with a magnification lens having a magnification from about 2 times to about 14 times with an associated focal length from about 40 millimeters to about 20 millimeters, the pixels are sized from about 2 microns and 3 microns per pixel. 
     
     
       17. The system of  claim 14 , the pixels are associated with a magnification lens having a magnification from about 5 times to about 25 times with an associated focal length from about 75 millimeters to about 38 millimeters, the pixels are sized from about 4 microns and about 6 microns per pixel. 
     
     
       18. The system of  claim 14 , the pixels are associated with a magnification lens having a magnification from about 7 times to about 38 times with an associated focal length from about 112 millimeters to about 56 millimeters, the pixels are sized from about 7 microns and about 8 microns per pixel. 
     
     
       19. The system of  claim 4 , the beam splitter includes at least one of a beam splitting cube, a plane beam splitter, and a thin pellicle. 
     
     
       20. A method for generating a digital image, comprising:
 selecting an optical configuration having at least one objective lens for generating a microscopic image of a specimen; and 
 adapting a sensor having a plurality of pixels to a matching lens, the sensor and the matching lens adapted to the optical configuration, the matching lens scales the pixels to about a size of a diffraction-limited parameter associated with the objective lens, the matching lens is designed to accommodate a range of powers associated with a set of objective lenses. 
 
     
     
       21. A system for generating a digital image, comprising:
 an optical system comprising a set of objective lenses for microscopic imaging of a sample; 
 a sensor having a plurality of pixels to generate an image for the optical system; and 
 a set of matching lenses associated with the sensor to scale the pixels to about a size of a diffraction-limited parameter associated with the set of objective lenses, each of the set of matching lenses correlated respectively to provide diffraction-limited mapping of pixels with each of the set of objective lenses.